Thing 5

If you were to ask me an hour ago what Web 2.0 was, I would have probably answered with "a new version of the internet."  After all, I've had an iPhone 3, 3GS, 4 and 4S (nope, no iPhone 5 for me yet).  Each version of the iPhone is a new and improved model of an earlier version.  However, after reading through the articles and watching the videos I learned that the Web 2.0 isn't actually a different version of the internet, but how we USE the internet differently.  As I discussed in "Thing 4," the internet and technology are allowing us to interact and collaborate in ways that we have never been able to do before.  In some ways, it is becoming such an integrated part of our lives that we can't imagine how life was without it.  And the speed of this change is quite staggering.  When I started college 10 years ago, I didn't even know how to use email.  My roommate literally had to take me to the computer lab and show me how to sign into the email account that the college provided each student.  The problem was, I didn't really have anyone to email.  These days, I don't think anyone in my family or group of friends is without a Facebook account.  Heck, even my grandparents are on Facebook.  To state that the internet is changing how we interact and learn is an understatement. 

Because of all these changes in technology, it is imperative that we keep up with the trends and learn ways that we can incorporate the Web 2.0 into a classroom setting.  After reading through some of the comments on one of the articles, a repetitive theme was the fact that although these interactive learning sites are out there, as educators we have to actively seek them out, get out of our usual teaching ruts and constantly revise how we think about and utilize technology in the classroom.  But actually doing this can be an intimidating process.  Let's face it, kids these days can run circles around us (well me anyway) with their technological skills.  While I was home for Christmas, I was shocked to see that my brother had an iPad for each of his 4 kids, who are all under 11.  After getting over my initial "don't drop that" fear, I thought, why does a kid who is that young need with an iPad?  However, after playing a counting game with the 4 year old and a Spanish vocabulary game with the 8 year old, I quickly changed my way of thinking.  Not only was I impressed with the educational value of these activities, but I was amazed with the ease that these young children were navigating through the different games.  It was almost intuitive to them.  Heck, even the 4 year old was teaching me how to change the colors and use different functions in her coloring game. 

As educators, we need to realize that students are going to come to us with a broad understanding of technology.  Instead of feeling intimidated by technology, we need to embrace it, study it and utilize it.  To me, School 2.0 is a way to incorporate technology to make lessons more interactive and engaging.  Web 2.0 gives us the tools to allow students to collaborate in new and exciting ways.  It makes learning more interactive, exciting and visual.  It caters to students with different learning styles.  It promotes critical thinking.  And it it here to stay.

As the prices of technology continue to drop, I think we will continue to see a growth of technology throughout the school systems.   I recently heard a report on the radio about a school that is trading textbooks for iPads.  A quick Google search shows that there are quite a few other schools doing the same thing.  Although this comes with its own set of challenges (the radio story mentioned issues they had with keeping kids off Facebook during class and the initial start up cost to name a few struggles with implementing the iPad program), these changes reflect the changing world in which we live and will teach this generation the skills they will need to successfully live in this world of ever changing technological advances.